Dennis the Menace and Clara
by ROTGOTHDTMAGstories
Summary: Clara has been in a home for girls since she was 3 until Curly and his parents adopt her at the start of summer. After being introduced to the menaces, it's Dennis who becomes her new best friend. Together they have double the fun, pull double the pranks and get into double the trouble! Based on the CBBC TV series "Dennis the Menace and Gnasher" rather than the comic in the Beano.


Chapter 1 - Claudius Attack!

I wake up to my phone loudly playing a familiar ringtone on my bed side table. When I open my eyes, I grin at the sight of Curly in the bed at the other side of the room. I still can't believe that I've been adopted AND by the perfect family! All my life I've wanted a menacing brother and parents that actually care, and now I do!

The song "Unstoppable" is almost finished by the time I actually pick up the phone to see who was calling.

The name Dennis came up on the screen and I try to remember who that is. I have only been here since the start of summer and I have been too shy to socialise, so I haven't met many people.

I know he is one of Curly's best friends and he has an obsession with pies...or is that the other boy?

None the less I answer it and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I say in a sleepy voice.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head!" Said a hyper voice. "Got a big day of menacing ahead of us!"

I look at my watch.

"Dennis, it's 9am on a Saturday!" I moan.

"And you never come out anymore!" Dennis says. "C'mon! Curly's told me you're a natural at pranks."

I'm not going to lie, I am an extremely talented minx.

I sigh with defeat.

"When have we to meet you?"

He laughs happily. "In about an hour at my house...you know where that is, right?"

I get a vague image of a red brick house on the corner of a street with a swing set and treehouse in the back garden.

"Eh...yeah I think so." I reply. "Curly will remind me."

"Great!" He says. "You know, Clara, I think we're gonna be great friends!"

"Really?!" I say, quite surprised that someone has finally got a good first impression of me.

"Yup!...HEY! Gnasher that's MY breakfast!" He shouts. "Eh... I gotta go. See ya!"

He hangs up and I switch my phone off.

Now I remember. Dennis is the boy that had the Abbysinian Wire-haired Tripehound called Gnasher. He's the one with the crazy black hair and stripy jumper and always refers to himself as a genius.

A bit arrogant if you ask me, but he's one of the small group of friends that I have so I'll have to learn to like him.

Then it occured to me that I didn't put his number in my phone. If I did, I would've at least remembered him. Curly probably did it so that I wouldn't have to do it later.

I hop out of bed, rub my eyes and walk over to Curly who is wrapped up in a bundle of blue covers.

I tap him on the shoulder 5 times with no luck, so instead, I shook him awake.

As he slowly came to, I repeated Dennis' first words to me on the phone: "Rise and shine, sleepy head. We've got a big day of menacing ahead of us!"

In no time, Curly and I are standing at Dennis' front door.

After Curly had rings the door bell, a tall man with black messy hair and a red T-shirt on answers.

"Oh. Hello, Curly." He says politely. "Hello...eh...sorry, I don't believe we've met before." He says to me.

I smile. "It's Clara. I'm Curly's new sister." It feels so good to say that.

"Oh yes! Dennis has told me about you. I'm his dad." He says.

I can guess by the extremely strong resemblance that this is true.

"He's up in the treehouse with Gnasher and Pieface." Dennis' dad says, pointing round the corner of the house. "And when you get up there, tell him if he doesn't help with the washing up tonight, he's grounded."

We nod and travel round to the back of the house to find an averagely large back garden with a yellow shed in the corner, a kennel, lots of tomatoes growing up the fences and a tall tree with a massive treehouse in it with lots of tents and rooms on the branches.

We run up a wooden ramp that twisted round the tree and walk into the largest room to find two boys. One in a hammock, reading a syfy magazine and the other sitting on a blue chest, about to tuck in to a slice of pie.

That's when I remember Pieface: the boy with an unhealthy obsession with pies that was surprisingly skinny despite how much he ate. I think I have his number too.

When we walk in, the boy in the hammock's face lights up.

He jumps up and runs over to us and high fives Curly.

"Ah. The legendary Clara. We've only met once I believe." He says in a posh voice and holds his hand out for me to shake.

I immediately check for a hand shocker and when I realize he isn't wearing one, I slip one on my finger behind my back.

"Oh yes. Dennis the menace." I say also in a posh voice. "How could one forget someone as talented and interested in the fine art of menacing as you?" Of course i was lying... because I did actually forget him.

I shake his hand and he jerks as the quick buzz of electicity shoots through him.

He rubs his hand and smiles.

"I can't believe I didn't see that coming!" He says and pulls Curly and me further into the treehouse. "I have a surprise! You too, Pieface!"

Pieface places the half eaten chunk of pie on the table and hurries over to us as we crowd around Dennis who has various objects under a white cloth.

"I figured that we would need a quick way to get to school." Dennis says. "And a quick getaway from trouble, so I saved up my pocket money and bought us these!"

He lifts off the cloth to reveal 3 skateboards.

One is yellow and has a red capital D on the end, another has a circle with a star in the middle and the other is orange with yellow flames painted on the front.

I suddenly felt left out.

It seems as though Dennis can read my mind as he goes over to the cluttered end of the treehouse.

"Then I remembered..." he starts. "Curly has a new sister. She's probably gonna hang about with us so..."

He pulls out of the pile, a purple skateboard with pink flames at the front, practically identical to the ornage one.

"It used to be my older cousin's. It's meant to be for Bea when she gets older, but I don't think she'll be riding it any time soon."

He hands it to me and I'm speechless. I barely know him and he's alreay showing extreme levels of kindess to me. He doesn't seem that much of a menace at all!

As time passed, Dennis went back to reading his magazine in the hammock, Pieface was now drinking some lemonade and Curly and I were rolling our skateboards along the wooden floor.

There came a high pitched screech as a cat suddenly came flying through the window, landing on Pieface's head and distracting him from his drink and lodging the cup between his cheeks.

It then jumped off his head and bounced on to Curly's skateboard.

"Uh-oh!" He yells. "A cat-astrophe!"

"Haha! Very funny!" I say sarcastically.

The cat then knocks over the table, on to the hammock, making Dennis spin round and round and round over and over again and then out of a hole in the roof.

Dennis lands on the floor as his dog comes into the treehouse and gives him a giant lick on the cheek.

The boy smiles at Gnasher and pats him as he gets to his feet.

"Gnasher's brilliant at keeping our treehouse a pest free zone!" He says.

"Claudius!" Came a cry from outside "Claudius!"

"Oops. Speaking of pests..." Curly says and walks to the door.

"Urgh!" I say, covering my ears. "That cry is even worse than the noicse that cat made!"

Dennis and I step on to the landing and Curly and Pieface watch from inside.

On the pavement outside Dennis' garden was a tall boy with shiny black hair, round glasses, a blue sweater and a bright red bow tie.

"What have you done with Claudiu-"

He shouts that laughs. "Ha! Menace, who's your girlfirend?!"

I fold my arms and huff. I do not like this guy at all.

"Your manky moggy attacked us!" Dennis shouts back.

"And for your information I'm not his girlfriend!" I scream.

"Only because your mouldy mutt chased him up there!" He shouts back.

"Great." I mutter to myself. "I'm being ignored completely.

"Out of my way... I'm coming in!" The boy shouts and tries to climb over the fence.

"Into our treehouse?" Dennis says. "No way!"

"Just you try and stop me!"

"Man the defences, menaces!" Dennis shouts.

Everyone runs to a position and I'm left standing in the middle of the room with nothing to do.

"Clara!" Dennis says. "Use the balloon." He points towards a red rubber balloon on the floor with a hose attatched.

"Ok..." I say. Not exactly sure what to do.

"When Walter gets to the bottom of the tree press down on the balloon." He says.

Oh so his name's Walter. Ha! That goes perfectly with his snobby personality!

I stand by the balloon, ready for action.

This is going to be fun!

* * *

Chapter 2 - You're One Of Us Now!

Pieface launches custards pies through the window as Walter sits on top of the fence.

On the first shot, he misses and hits the fence.

"Ha!" Walter laughs.

Pieface fires another pie and hits the fence again, but this time, Walter falls off and hits thr ground face first.

He quickly fires another, but it lands behind him.

Walter looks behind him at the pie splattered fence and laughs just to be surprised by a custard pie in the face.

He wipes himself clean with his sleeve to reveal the true anger on his face.

This means war!

He gets up slowly and runs toward the tree and hides behind the trunk.

"Now, Clara!" Dennis shouts and I press down on the balloon and send the bubble of gas through the hose.

When Walter sees the hose he's blasted with the gas and he starts sneezing vigorously.

However he comes up the ramp just the same, sneezing all the way up.

Curly uses the camera on a computer to see when Walter came to the top. He moved a joystick forward and a small ink can splatted a few drops of ink on the landing.

Walter stepped on the ink and slipped off the landing and on to a branch.

Dennis then pulled a lever and a snake popped out of a box along with Claudius who jumped on Walter and caused him to fall out the tree and into a puddle of mud.

"Ooohh. DENNIS!" He shouts in defeat.

"Security defences in working order!" Curly says.

"Enemy repelled!" Pieface says, smiling and saluting.

"Treehouse safe from intruders!" Dennis says happily.

"Result!" I cheer.

We look down at Walter who is sulking away to hus own house which I find is just across the street from Dennis'.

"So who is this Walter guy anyway?" I ask Dennis who is picking his magazine off the floor.

"He's been my arch nemesis ever since I moved here." He explains. "He's snobby, bossy, sensible, clean, polite to adults and thinks he's the smartest and best person in the whole universe. Everything a menace isn't."

I remember the conversation on the phone I had with Dennis and thinking he was arrogant. Well compared to Walter, he's entirely selfless.

"So what you're saying is...he's a softie?" I ask.

"Yes! Exactly!" He replies and pushes the lever back into it's original position so it can be again. "You know, Clara, Curly was right when he said you're a natural at pranking." He says.

"Eh. Thanks." I say. I'm not used to compliments. I'm not used to having friends. I'm not used to knowing people like Dennis.

"You were right too." I say.

"Eh?" He asks, collecting a rag to clean up the ink. "Right about what?"

"I think we are going to be the best of friends." I say.

He grins and steps out the treehouse.

"Genius wears a striped jumper!" He says and walks out of view.

Curly comes and nudges me.

"What?" I say and nudge him back.

"Don't you be stealing my best friend." He says.

"I'm not!" I say. "I'm allowed to have the same friends as you!"

He smiles. "I know."

There's an awkward pause before he puts his hand on my shoulder.

"He's never usually this nice to girls. He thinks none of them are fit to menace or play pranks."

"So what you're saying is... he's a sexist pig." I say sarcastically.

"No!" Curly shouts. "It's because we're used to knowing girly girls from our class. Girls that would rather go shopping than play a game of footy, have their nails done rather than fill water balloons. You know, girls that care more about their looks than having fun."

"I am nothing like that." I say.

"I know." He says. "And that's why I think Den acts differently with you. You're not like all those other girls...you're one of us!"

"Do you mean I'm part of the gang?!" I ask excitedly.

Dennis comes back in just in time to hear me say that.

"Well, the menaces could always use an extra member." He says.

"Wait, we haven't checked with Paul yet." Pieface says and holds up a potato to his ear.

I'm so confused I'm speechless.

Curly leans into me.

"Paul is Pieface's pet potato." He clarifies. "He thinks it can talk."

"Does he have problems?" I whisper.

"No." Dennis says. "Well...maybe. He refuses to see a psychiatrist coz Paul apparently gets nervous whilst being tested for mental behaviour."

"Paul says only boys can be in the group because girls are called minxes and not menaces." Pieface says.

"So?" I say. "I don't mind being called a menace. It sounds better anyway."

He holds the potato up to his ear and nods.

"He says he'll think about it." He says and we all grin.

"Yes!" Dennis and Curly cheer.

A warm feeling spins around inside of me and I can feel my cheeks going pink.

This is one of the only times someone has actually said they want me in their lives. One of the only times someone has showed kindness to me.

I don't remember much about my toddler years before the home for girls, but I know for a fact that things can only get better from now on.

* * *

Chapter 3 - Angelface

The next day I'm with the boys outside the school I'll be attending: BeanoTown School. Yes, I know. The name is pretty straight forward but I'm only here for 1 and 1/2 years and then we're off to high school. I've been told that I'll be in the menace's class so that's an amazing start, but Walter so happens to be in that class too and apparently the teacher is a real grump. In a way, I'm dreading it, yet looking forward to it at the same time.

I press my back against the wired fence and my eye catches a small girl wearing her long black hair in a high ponytail that sticks out the back. She's wearing a yellow top with a royal blue cardigan and bright red skirt, a purple bag strapped round her shoulder. She has a sort of angelic yet develish look about her that suggests that she may look sweet, but get on her bad side and she will probably snap your neck!

"As if we'd let Walter or ANYONE into our treehouse!" Dennis says bringing up the subject from yesterday.

"The best den in the history of BeanoTown!" Curly says.

"Eh. Best den in the history of the world!" Pieface corrects.

"Cool!" Says the girl I saw earlier as she runs up to us. "Can I come and see it?" Her voice sounds innocent but incredibly annoying at the same time.

The boys gasp.

"Eh...no, sorry." Curly says politely.

"No. Not possible." Pieface says.

"Menaces only zone. No can do." Dennis says.

"Well she's not a menace!" She shouts and points at me.

"Hey! She has a name, you know!" I say. I'm not getting a good impression of this girl at all.

"This is Clara." Dennis says and puts his hand my shoulder. "And she IS a menace."

"C'mon. Pleeeaasse?" She asks sweetly.

"No." I say. "Don't you understand that Dennis can choose who wants in the den?"

"Eh...did you just say no to me?" She says evilly.

"Yep!" I say.

I'm not afraid of her and I can be as threatening as she can.

"Don't worry, Angelface." Says a familiar voice and Walter comes up with two boys behind him. "I've seen their den and it's rubbish!"

I roll my eyes.

"You're just jealous that we actually have a place to hang out, Walter!" I say.

"No I'm not! Besides, my new den is far cooler than yours." He smirks and folds his arms and walks away.

"Really?" The girl asks and follows the boys down the road.

"Is that girl really called Angelface or is that just a pet name he has for her?" I ask.

"Nope. That's her real name." Dennis says.

"What?! Who names their daughter Angelface?" I say.

"The headmaster." Curly says.

"She's the headmaster's daughter?" I say in shock.

"Yup. Angelface De Testa. She's another one of our enemies. You might find we have a lot." Dennis says.

With them being menaces, I kind of guessed.

"Wait a minute..." Curly says. "Didn't Walter say he had a new den?!"

Dennis' eyes narrow.

"What new den?!"

* * *

Chapter 4 - What Belongs To Walter?!

After dinner, my phone vibrates in my pocket as I get a text. It's from Dennis saying "Come to the treehouse in 5 minutes. I know how we're going to find Walter's den."

Curly and I are there in a flash and as we walk into Dennis' back garden we see him and Pieface walking down the ramp with the 4 skateboards and some celotape closely followed by Gnasher.

There's a woman with short red hair hanging out the washing who can only be Dennis' mum, even though I think he's the double of his dad. She smiles and waves at us before taking the empty washing basket into the house.

Pieface places the skateboards in line with each other on the ground and Curly uses the celotape to temporarily stick them together.

Dennis sneaks over to the washing line and yanks the line off with all the clothes still on it. It seemed a bit unfair that his mum had just hung them out to dry, but we're menaces, who cares?!

"What's that for?" I ask him as he ties the ends of the string around the two end skateboards which were Pieface's and Curly's.

"Plan D and G." He says. "Track Walter's new den with our secret weapon."

He points to Gnasher who grins at him showing his huge white teeth.

"One menaced up dog sled..." Curly says and gestures towards the line of skateboards with Pieface on top of his on his hands and knees.

"Ready to launch!" Pieface shouts eagerly.

"Gnasher?" Dennis says to his dog. "You know what to do."

He gives him the thumbs up and the dog runs into his kennel.

After a moment, he comes back out with a scrap of green underpants with yellow polkadots on them.

He places it on the ground and Dennis ties the washing line to a collar and puts it around Gnasher's neck.

We all get on our own skateboards. The order from left to right is Curly, me, Dennis, Pieface. We're so squashed and bunched together that if one of us in the middle fell off, we'd bring the rest down with us.

I grip tight to my skateboard as Gnasher takes a sniff at the underpants.

He then looks forward, bend his front left leg and his small tail sticks out behind him.

"Hold tight!" Dennis says to me and I brace myself for the impact of falling off. "This is gonna be a bumpy-"

He's cut off as Gnasher wizzes round the garden and round the garage.

We all scream as the dog pulls us out on to the pavement, clothes from the washing line flying at lightning speed past us.

We come up to an old man who stands in the middle of our path. When he sees us coming he panicks and jumps into someone's garden.

As we race past him, a pair of pink trousers fly off the line just as he tries to stand up and hits him in the face.

He grumbles loudly and his face turn bright red.

"DENNIS!" He screams as we turn ths corner.

"Who's that then?" I ask as one of Dennis' stripy jumpers whizzes past me.

"He's the Colonel." Curly answers. "He's the oldest man in BeanoTown." Pieface says.

"And he says he's done so many cool things during world war two." Curly adds on.

"But it's all a bunch of baloney really." Dennis says as we turn another corner. "My gran says he was in the year above her when they were in primary school and she was born during the war."

There was a short pause before we turn again and Dennis says "And he's my next door neighbour."

"Ouch. That must be tough." I say.

He doesn't have a chance to reply as we race into BeanoTown Park.

"Bush, Gnasher, BUSH!" I shout. But it's too late and we're already through the bush by the time I've finished my sentence.

When we come out Pieface has a bird perched on his helmet which isn't in the mood for budging. It just carries on pecking at his head.

He shudders everytime it did because it must really hurt.

"Not in there." Curly says.

I turn round to see where we're heading: the pond!

"Oh..." I groan.

"No!" Curly screams.

"Oh, cool! Maybe he has an underwater den!" Pieface says, unaware of the fact that we might drown.

Gnasher jumps off the pier and takes us, the skatboards and all the washing into the pond.

We luckily land in the shallow end, but all the clothes are soaked and muddy and Pieface still has the bird on his head.

Dennis spits out water when he sits up and Pieface moans at the bird who pecks him on the head more.

"About time too!" I hear a familiar girly voice come from behind us.

I turn, my navy blue hoodie clinging to my stomach.

"Angelface?!" I say when I see the girl leaning on a tree beside her bike and orange bagpack.

We stumble out the water as Gnasher runs up to Angelface, sniffing around for Walter. He pauses and looks at her before crawling past her bike and over to the bag and out of it, he pulls a pair of the exact same underpants as earlier.

"Walters!" Curly gasps.

Angelface giggles.

"So you've been leading us on a wild goose chase all over town?" Dennis shouts.

"Yup." Angelface says proudly. "Fun wasn't it?"

"Not really." Pieface says sadly, looking at the bird on his head.

"Oh, don't worry, Pieface." Angelface says and puts her arm around his neck.

Pieface looks both surprised and angry at her. "Walter said when you finally caught up with me, I could take you to his new den."

"So?" I shout. "What are we waiting for?!"

"Of cource...I'll have to blindfold you. Don't want to spoil the surprise." She says suspiciously and walks over to the pond and takes out the washing line.

"You're going to blindfold us with a manky washing line?" Dennis asks, folding his arms.

"Do you have somethig better to do it with." Angelface says and rises on her tip toes and towers over him.

He sighs and pushes her away.

"I guess not." He says and she beams and goes back to being a happy and innocent little girl.

"Great!" She says and ties a white shirt around Dennis' head, covering his eyes.

Soon we find ourselves walking in a line, the four of us (and Gnasher) blindfolded in damp and muddy shirts, and Angelface leads us about by tugging on the line.

"Are we nearly there yet?" Pieface moans. "I'm hungry!"

"Oh, we're here alright!" Angelface says and I can feel the pressure being taken off the line meaning she must've let go.

We take off the blindfolds and rub the muck off our eyes.

I find myself looking at a tree with a ramp on the side. I'm in shock as I look up to see...

"WHAT?!" Dennis screams.

"Welcome to my treehouse!" Walter says as Angelface runs up the ramp and the two boys from earlier come out the door and Claudius cuddles into his owner.

"This treehouse belongs to us!" I shout at him.

He leans down on the wood and smirks at us.

"No. This treehouse belongs to me!" He replies. "Go ask your dad, Dennis!"

* * *

Chapter 5 - We're Gonna Take Back What's Ours!

"The treehouse does belong to Walter." Dennis' dad says after we ask him.

We all gasp and Gnasher wimpers.

"He came earlier and showed us the property deeds." Dennis' mum says.

"The properly whats?" Dennis asks, still really confused.

"Ownership papers. Usually kept in Mayor Scrimp's office. They say the tree and the treehouse belong to Walter's family." His dad explains.

"So Walter owns the treehouse?" I ask. "That can't be right?!"

"I guess we'll need a new hideout." Curly sighs.

We all sigh except from Dennis who is still too furious at Walter to be bothered with anything else.

Suddenly Pieface's face lights up.

"I know the perfect place!" He says.

Dennis raises an eyebrow and folds his arms.

"And that is?" He asks.

"C'mon." Pieface says and pulls Curly's sleeve towards the back door. "I'll take you there."

When we follow Pieface outside, Walter, Angelface and the others are still watching us.

"Going off to find a new hide out, menace?" Walter shouts.

"I'll have you know, softie, that we have a much better place than this for a den!" Dennis shouts and gestures to the tree.

"And where's that?" Walter asks.

"Can't say." Dennis says. "Top secret and classified information."

"Well... no need to tell me! I bet we'll find it on our own." Walter sneers.

"Oh please." Angelface says. "There's no point in going to find it. It'll be useless. It'll probably be something like an old pie box in Pieface's dad's pie shop."

Pieface frowns and runs out the garden.

"Pieface, slow down!" Curly shouts and we all follow him down the street.

We all glare at Pieface as he happily stares into space.

"Pieface." I say in a serious tone.

He turns and smiles at me.

"Sitting in your dad's old pie box in his pie shop is not the perfect place."

"Of course it is!" He says. "Close to home, pies on tap perfect. Aint that right, Paul?"

He holds the potato up to him and stares at it. "What do you mean no?"

Gnasher walks past the pie box with his face covered in custard as he tucks in to a pie.

"At least someone's happy." Curly sighs.

Suddenly Dennis jumps out of the box.

"We are menaces." He says determinedly. "And we are not going to let Walter take our treehouse!"

"So you mean we're..." I say, but Dennis interupts.

"We're taking it back!" He says with a smile.

He walks behind the counter and we jump out of the box and crowd round him.

"This is the treehouse." He exclaims, placing a small tub in the centre of the counter. "Walter is the pepper pot." He puts a pepper pot on the top.

"Me..." He puts a ketchup bottle next to the tub. "Gnasher..." He places a bottle of mayonnaise on the other side of the tub. "Clara..." He puts a mustard bottle next to the ketchup. "Curly..." He puts a bottle of brown sause next to the mayonnaise. "Pieface." He puts a small white tub with a blue lid in the far corner of the counter. "We sneak in, dodge our own traps and take back what's ours!"

He slams his fist on the ketchup bottle which squirts a whole load of ketchup into Pieface's mouth.

He licks his lips and laughs.

"Tasty plan, Dennis!" He says.

"Well, like I always say," Dennis replies, his hands on his hips. "Genius wears a striped jumper!"

* * *

Chapter 6 - Revenge

That night we asked our parents if we could have a what seemed like an innocent sleepover at Dennis' house. All our parents had said yes, so that wasn't an issue.

When we got to his house, we put all our stuff inside and Dennis let us use his camouflage paint set he get for his birthday to paint our faces.

After that, we went outside and stuck twigs and leaves on our clothes and in our hair.

All dressed up, we stand on the other side of the fence, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Ready, gang?" Dennis whispers.

I nod and smile. Gang. I've never thought that I would ever be part of one. It makes me feel so happy and relieved that I now finally have friends who understand me and who want me as part of their 'gang'.

Dennis jumps over the fence and there's a strange wobbling sound.

Suddenly there's a loud crash and I just climb over the fence quick enough to see a stack of cans falling to the ground.

"Seriously, Den?" I whisper.

He shrugs helplessly and Walter emerges from the treehouse and on to the wooden landing.

"We've been expecting you." He says eerily.

"Bring it on!" I say, punching my fist in the air when I get over the fence.

When the others are in the garden the pies start coming from the window. I duck as one heads straight for me, but Pieface jumps in front of me straight in time to start munching on it.

"Ha. Thanks, Pieface!" I say and run off the catch up with the other boys.

We hide round the back of the tree where the hose is and Curly hooks up a sort of pump to it.

When we see the bubble of gas coming through the hose, he presses down hard on it and sends it back up.

As we run up the ramp, there's a banging noise and a whole lot of sneezing. I'm guessing that's the red balloon exploding with all that gas in it.

There's a quiet beeping sound and I know that's my cue to pull down the zip on the rucksack on my back and release the red and black umbrella that automatically opens up and acts as a shield.

The ink that squirts out the can falls on to the umbrella instead of the floor and we don't have to worry about slipping off.

There's a familiar sound like a jack in the box popping up behind me and when I turn round I see Dennis getting pulled off the landing by the toy snake on the branch below.

"Den!" I whisper and get on my knees and grab his hand.

He tries his best to hall himself up, but the snake has an exceptionally good grip of his leg.

"Curly." I say. "Give us a hand here!"

He gets on his knees and had just touched Dennis' other hand when the snake goes back inside the box and stops grabbing his leg.

Pieface runs up the ramp and wipes the remaining pie crumbs off his face.

Dennis sighs in relief once he's up again.

"Thanks." He says and high fives me and Curly before I take out 4 full water guns.

"Now let's get this treehouse back!" I say and Curly kicks open the door.

Walter screams and holds the deeds up to his chest.

Gnasher sniffs the air before locking his eyes on Claudius who was hiding behind a box.

He shreeks when he sees Gnasher and jumps away and on to Walter. His claws dig in to the papers and when he jumps off, they're stuck to his feet.

"Oh no!" Walter shouts. "The deeds!"

Gnasher growls at the cat and attacks it soon the deeds are torn into shreds.

Walter sighs and tries to catch a few of the pieces, but it's no good. They can't be put back together now.

"That's torn it, Walter." Dennis says.

Walter thinks for a moment then laughs and takes a USB stick out his pocket.

"I'll just print some more!" He says.

"Yeah. That'll be right." I say sarcastically and fire water at his hand and immediately throws the USB stick out the window accidentally.

I turn to the two boys in the corner who are so scared, they might as well be about to die.

"Who's for a bath?" I say and aim my gun at them, but I don't fire.

It's Curly and Pieface who first to fire at them and make them run for their lives out the treehouse.

Dennis and I take the liberty of doing the same to Walter.

We then chace them all the way down the ramp and out into the front garden.

There's so much noise being made thay I wouldn't be surprised if the whole neighbourhood has woken up. Walter and his gang of softies are screaming like babies, the four of us are laughing and cheering and Gnasher is barking at Claudius.

Dennis' dad is soon forced to come outside to put a stop to it.

"What is all this noise!?" He shouts and all of us go silent.

"They ruined the deeds!" Walter shouts and points to us.

"Dennis!" He says. But Dennis doesn't look sad or angry. He looks proud of himself.

"I'm sorry Walter." His dad continues. "Look I'll pop down to the Town Hall first thing in the morning and get you a copy."

Walter gasps. "The Town Hall?" "No...eh...I mean..."

"You mean those papers of yours were fake!" I shout. "The treehouse never belonged to you, Walter!"

"No!" He says and tries to think of an excuse. "No...need."

I fold my arms and nid my head as if to say "Keep going, Walter. You're doing great. How many more lies do you need to tell to break the record?"

"I've...gone off this place. You can keep your stupid treehouse!"

He begins to walk out the gate with his friends when Gnasher and Claudius come whizzing round the corner.

In an emergency attempt to escape Gnasher, Claudius jumps on to Walter's face and he screams and runs down to his house.

"We're back!" Dennis shouts and we all cheer. Even his dad smiles.

"Hmmm..." Dennis thinks. "The treehouse was way too easy to break in to..."

"I got it!" I say. "We needan old mattress, a broken bicycle and all the baked beans we can carry."

The others nod in agreement, but Dennis' dad shakes his head.

"In the morning, thank you. I've had enough excitement for one night."

We turn and walk in the house.

I check the clock. 10.34pm.

Wow. At the home for girls, we're only allowed to stay up until 9. Another one of the reasons I prefer it here.

* * *

Chapter 7 - The Baked Beans, The Mattress And The Bicycle

I yawn and stretch my arms as I wake up from another great night's sleep. I'm not in my room and I'm on a white mattress covered by a super soft red and black stripy quilt. I sit up slightly to see I'm head to toe with Curly who's still sound asleep.

Behind him, Pieface is in a green sleeping, snoring quietly.

The walls of the room are painted with red and black stripes and there's so many toys and boxes scattered around the place.

Gnasher is lying at the end of the bed which I am lying next to.

I properly sit up to see a bundle of covers on the bed in the shape of a body.

I giggle and pull the covers off of Dennis who is curled up in a ball and fast asleep.

When I take his heat away, he blinks and stares at me through narrow eyes.

"Mum. It's still the summer holidays." He moans. "Give the covers back!"

I laugh.

"I'm not your mum!" I say and toss the covers on to his face.

I walk over the sleeping bodies and feel the impact of the covers on my back and I suddenly hit the floor.

Dennis laughs so hard he falls off the bed and on to the mattress.

I stand up and take the covers off of me as he is still in a laughing fit.

"Stop laughing!" I say, putting my foot on his stomach to stop him from laughing.

He grabs ahold of my foot and yanks it so that I loose my footing and fall on to the mattress beside him.

Instead of going in a mood from falling, I some how found this really funny (mainly because Dennis' hysterical laugh is so funny).

"I was definitely right." He says. "We are going to be best friends."

I smile and sit up and take my hair out of my face.

"Yeah. We definitely are." I say and spot my folded clothes on Dennis' bed side table. "I'm gonna get changed." I say and pick up the clothes and head towards the door.

"Ok. He says. "I'll wake the boys up and you can meet us in the treehouse in 10."

I nod and walk out the room and into the bathroom.

10 minutes later, we're in the treehouse setting up our new machine with the equipment Dennis' dad got us as requested around the side of the den.

We attatch some springs in the mattress to the back wheel on the broken bike and pour tins upon tins of cold baked beans on to the mattress.

"Walter? I'm coming in!" We hear a voice as soon as we get back in the treehouse.

I rush to the window to see Angelface walking up to the tree.

"Get the bike ready!" I say and we run out to the side of the treehouse where we had set up the machine.

Pieface gets on the bike and peddles as fast as he can which pushes the springs on the mattress back.

"Now!" Dennis shouts and Pieface stops peddling sending the baked beans on the mattress flying across the garden and right on top of Angelface.

She grimaces for a moment then mumbles.

"Cold baked beans..." she says. "DENNIS!"

We cheer and Dennis high fives me.

"It's good to be home!" He says and Gnasher barks happily as if to agree with him.

I sigh and look at the scene. People being pranked, a group of friends having fun, a brother to care for and help me when I'm down.

This is it. BeanoTown. This is where I belong.

"Yup." I say. "It is good to be home."


End file.
